Photoplay (Jan-Jun 1930)

The glamorous Nita Naldi in a flashback scene from "Lawful Larceny," for which an ancient Egyptian perfume was concocted IT may seem unbelievable to you that perfumes play any part on picture stages except as stars use them for dousing purposes to suit their own tastes. As a matter of fact, sweet-smelling oils and waters play a very important, though invisible, role in the making of movies. There must be a good odor in filmland. Perfume has a powerful effect-upon the human emotions — it brings peculiar and subtle psychological reactions — most important of all, it gives the key and cue to characters, times, and places. I know! For ten years I was the harassed fellow who fitted the stars and their characters with just the proper scent. Just one of my duties as technical expert and research man at a large Eastern studio. I furnished enough olfactory atmosphere, in that decade, to send the whole population of New York State into a series of swoons. My first experience with the power and place of perfume in pictures came in a production of "Lawful Larceny" with Nita Naldi and Hope Hampton, which Paramount made years ago. In it was a flashback to an episode in the life of Cleopatra, with Naldi as the seductive Queen of the Nile. Alan Dwan was the director, and, with his passion for realism in detail, he insisted that we omit nothing that our research disclosed which would add to the authentic customs of the time — and that would pass the censor. Now, Egyptian splendor, with an unbelievable use of perfumes, was at its height during the days of Cleopatra, whose beauty and charm were said to be doubly enhanced by the variety and quantity of sweet scented unguents and lotions she used. TheS weet By H. M. K. Smith TO anoint her hands but once required the worth of 400 denarii (about S50.00), the odor of which was wafted away on the air and lost forever. The favorite of this exotic daughter of Egypt was called " Kyaphi," and she employed it, among other things, to bring about the downfall of the mighty general of Caesar's legions, Marc Antony. U Speaking of Perfume, Did You Know That NAPOLEON drenched himself with a whole flask of Eau de Cologne every time he washed? The first recipe for perfume appeared in the Book of Exodus ? The favorite scent of Henry the Eighth of England was musk, and that he used it copiously? A famous film star was wakened each morning by the scent of flowers placed on her pillow by her maid? The Helen Morgan we see in "Applause." For this picture Miss Morgan bought cheap and inferior scents in keeping with her role The mysterious and magic "Kyaphi" was kept by special slaves in containers of alabaster, gold and turquoise. In ancient papyri of that day, it is written, "It is compounded of twice-eight aromatics which please most in the night; and in the light of the moon no man may withstand its power." WITH this devastating scent, Cleopatra used upon her feet an unguent called "Aegyptium," composed of oil of almonds, honey and cinnamon, impregnated with orange blossoms and henna. While we had to guess at the identity of some of the twiceeight aromatics, we followed the recipe for "Aegyptium" to the letter, and, in addition to these, the extensively perfumed Naldi was attended by slaves bearing gold vases filled with burning incense. For this we used what is probably the first known formula for perfume, contained in the Bible itself where, in the Book of Exodus, it was given in detail by God to Moses. It was composed of equal parts of "Stacte" (a kind of liquid myrrh), of "Galbanum" (an aromatic gum), and of pure frankincense, so that we had in this picture a mixture of perfumes both sacred and profane.